The Rebel Faction

For Kas' side: Though I expect that Kas will quickly add, "But corporations are people too!", it should be said that those who suffer the most from file sharing are the artists. I've explained the concept of turnaround before; that artists must sell a fixed number of copies before seeing a dime. Linkin Park or whatever commercialized bullshit "music" you kiddies like listening to won't be hurt by file sharing. Less popular artists on smaller labels won't be able to pay back the money the record company paid them forward to make the record. Any of you elitist nerd emo/punk/hardcore bastards should be concerned with this, as most of the bands you like are less popular and more likely to fall victim to this.

For Zell's side: A CD costs what, 15 cents to make? If record companies agreed to eat a little on the profits they could probably make do with a little less cash and be able to pay artists more, making up for the loss. I'm not an expert in the economics of it but I know there's a pretty @#%$ fair profit margin there that record companies don't seem to be willing to move.

Oh please Kas. Run, chicken little. You're probably the kind of guy who predicted the end of the written word when eBooks came out. In the end, there is an elegance to a permanent, corporeal storage. Just like eBooks didn't erase the book industry, file swapping will not erase the music industry.

Changes will be made but let's be honest, these companies are in no real danger of dying. They might be in danger of not posting the collossal profits they're used to, but given that they retail a mass-producable product at about one hundred times what it cost to make, they're not quite in hot water yet.

The Music Industry is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Except down, unless they adapt.

I've yet to meet someone who preferred reading a book on their computer, or on a small PDA screen. Ebook readers are far too expensive, and they only do one thing. The restrictions placed on most eBooks, in terms of how you can use them and on how many computers, are also a little prohibitive to their expansion.

Music sharing, on the other hand, is different. A user can download an entire CD, burn it to a disc, and the only thing they're missing is the CD art and sleeve. Or they can listen to it on their $50 MP3 player; share them with friends, etc. So while there's incentive to buy CD's if you want to support the band (something which won't go away) or get the jewel case art, you can get the real substance of a CD quick, and take it anywhere.

So, while eBooks and MP3's are both electronic innovations on old technology (eg: fruit) they're completely different mediums (apples and oranges), making it difficult to draw an accurate comparison.

If that's what you can do now, imagine how it would be if mp3 swapping was completely legalized?

Millions of people share files every day. Millions of people heard about Grokster, Kazaa, Bearshare, Limewire, etc, even though the companies that own these products do relatively miniscule advertising.

Imagine how it would be if companies were doing full-bore advertising, rather than just relying upon word of mouth?